Missing clothing items - the REAL truth.

[I'm on holiday]

We were on the February 10 sailing of the Radiance and upon our return I realized I had left some clothing items in a bottom drawer in our cabin. (brand new Nike dry-fit shorts, top & sports bra, and 4 bathing suits -2 were never worn! :() Before I continue, I take full responsibility for getting side tracked and forgetting to empty out that last drawer. BTW...there are tons of drawers, cubbies and closet space in a GS.

 

I immediately emailed the lost and found department, giving a detailed description of the items, our cabin number and cabin attendant. I also followed up with a call and repeated all the info. I was told that an email would be sent to the ship and they would report back. Two days later I received a voicemail claiming that an "extensive search" had been conducted and my items were not found. I called them back to discuss the matter, and after a bit of back and forth with the rep, she disclosed that for "health and safety issues" clothing items are discarded. :eek:

 

My question is, why put a guest through the charade of a report if they know darn well clothing items will be tossed?

[foxesden1]

what? sounds like something is not quite right with that story. i used to work at a hotel, and we never ever tossed a guests items!

[TPKeller]

what? sounds like something is not quite right with that story. i used to work at a hotel, and we never ever tossed a guests items!

I could see in this day of STDs that intimate garments may very well be discarded... Unfortunate.

 

Theron

[julesbeara]

I can see they might discard clothing that had been worn. Bu why the new items with tag attached???

[judie43]

I can understand discarding the clothes but I would think they would hold them for a reasonable about of time. Give the guest a chance to realize they are missing them.

[Crewzer33]

I left my prescription eyeglasses in the nightstand drawer and forgot them. The next morning I was on the phone with them making my report. Two follow up calls later, and they gave me the same story: searched and searched and nothing was found.....

[TEXASMUNK]

on various cruise lines....Never gotten any of it back...Would have to assume it would be a logistical nightmare and a ton of extra work for not only someone onboard, but then you have to deal with contract employees at each port. Add to that the cost/responsibility for getting the items back to the person....Who pays?

 

It is frustrating, but understandable...PS..the Cust. service person should have acknowledged the truth immediately....Wanna bet he or she was caught in a nervous no win situation and was purely being "human" and trying to avoid being the bearer of bad news.

[sr5242]

My son left his stuffed puppy at a Wisconsin dells waterpark hotel. They not only held onto it but even fed exd it back to us (we paid the shipping of course )

[brmoqueen]

We were b2b on LB a couple weeks ago and when we moved into our cabin for the second week (steward was not quite done cleaning--still had to vacuum)...I pulled out of the closet floor a pair of nikes and about 6 pieces of clothing...

 

His response was "people leave stuff so they can put in their suitcase the stuff they bought"....

 

The implication was it was going to be trashed...

 

So if you had been in 1702 on 1/30/11---I believe your stuff in in the garbage!!!

 

i thought that was very strange .......but I guess there are people that throw away clothes to take trinkets home?!?!

 

jul

[sr5242]

We were b2b on LB a couple weeks ago and when we moved into our cabin for the second week (steward was not quite done cleaning--still had to vacuum)...I pulled out of the closet floor a pair of nikes and about 6 pieces of clothing...

 

His response was "people leave stuff so they can put in their suitcase the stuff they bought"....

 

The implication was it was going to be trashed...

 

So if you had been in 1702 on 1/30/11---I believe your stuff in in the garbage!!!

 

i thought that was very strange .......but I guess there are people that throw away clothes to take trinkets home?!?!

 

jul

 

When my mother and I toured Ireland we brought old clothes and the rattiest undies we owned and tossed stuff as we went along

[marco]

I think it would just be too time consuming and costly to catagorize, store and monitor items that were left on a ship, with lines sailing different ships out out different ports, where would all this "stuff" be? A faclility in each port? How long would it stay there if no one inquired about it? How would you do it..stuff everything found in a cabin into one bag or box and label it "found in cabin XXXX on ship XYZ on (date)". It's not like a hotel/motel, that you could return back to and check lost and found at reception. If I left clothing in the cabin on a ship, I don't think I'd even bother to call the line to inquire about it. I would hope everything found at least ends up donated to Goodwill or Salvation Army.

[brmoqueen]

Marco....I agree

 

I would hope tho that if there is something important (such as safe contents or prescription glasses) that they would go the extra mile and contact the consumer...It's not like they don't know whose it is!!!

 

Course, that's also assuming that the stewards make it known that they found the stuff!!

 

j

[wolfcathorse]

I thought left behind clothing was donated to the crew fund or to a local charity

[I'm on holiday]

I can see they might discard clothing that had been worn. Bu why the new items with tag attached???

 

I can understand discarding the clothes but I would think they would hold them for a reasonable about of time. Give the guest a chance to realize they are missing them.

 

 

Agreed! How about hold the items at the port for one or two sailings, then if unclaimed, get rid of them. It would seem reasonable to allow folks a little bit of time to recover their items. In my case, I live 35 minutes from the Port of Tampa, and would have driven there immediately upon hearing my items were being held.

[TEXASMUNK]

Since many cruise lines have abandoned the US for richer waters, many ports are part-time...which means if you want to retrieve something, you would have to take an employee away from a check-in duty. I am not aware of any cruise line hiring extra staff these days....if anything they are understaffed.

 

Good idea, but doubt it would "float"

 

Then the next question....if they found your stuff, brought it onshore and it got stolen, who would be liable???

 

In today's let's sue society, no cruise line needs that one extra headache.

[awboater]

Can you imagine how much this must happen?

 

I am sure it would be a logistical nightmare to return all of the items, most of which probably only have minimal value.

 

But I love telling stories, and this is a story of something we saw on a recent cruise.

 

We were in one of the lounges waiting to get off the ship. A couple next to us, a husband and wife, arrived after we did. The wife was talking on her cell phone, chatting with a couple of other guests, and apparently distracted from events of the day.

 

When our number was called to leave the ship, they were in line in front of us. About half-way off the ship, she turned to her husband and announced to him that she forgot her cane in their stateroom.

 

If looks could kill... her husband flashed that look to her. In a disgusted fashion, he just let the backpack he was carrying drop to the floor with a clunk, then walked away; presumably to retrieve her cane (but maybe not). Anyway, we had a laugh that morning.

[I'm on holiday]

A fair estimation of my (left behind) items is roughly $400. Four items had never been worn. :(

[publicpersona]

I am sure it would be a logistical nightmare to return all of the items, most of which probably only have minimal value.

A logistical nightmare? OK ... mark a plastic bag with a ship/date/cabin number. Charge $25 shipping/handling to ship it if requested. Toss it after two weeks.

 

Doesn't sound like a nightmare to me.

[98Charlie]

I'll bet that even more than "health and safety issues" it has to do with the amount of time available to the stewards to change over the 1000+ cabins that they have. It's just more expeditious to toss everything from the cabins in to the trash.

 

JMHO,

 

Charlie

[bplazo]

We were b2b on LB a couple weeks ago and when we moved into our cabin for the second week (steward was not quite done cleaning--still had to vacuum)...I pulled out of the closet floor a pair of nikes and about 6 pieces of clothing...

 

His response was "people leave stuff so they can put in their suitcase the stuff they bought"....

 

The implication was it was going to be trashed...

 

So if you had been in 1702 on 1/30/11---I believe your stuff in in the garbage!!!

 

i thought that was very strange .......but I guess there are people that throw away clothes to take trinkets home?!?!

 

jul

 

On one of our cruises I had a strap on my bathing suit break and I threw it in the trash can and later when we came back from dinner the room steward and retrieved it and put it on the bed. Well, I trased it again and the room steward again took it out of the trash and laid it on the bed. Finally, I just wrapped it in a bag and buried it under alot of other trash.

[Shomari]

A logistical nightmare? OK ... mark a plastic bag with a ship/date/cabin number. Charge $25 shipping/handling to ship it if requested. Toss it after two weeks.

 

Doesn't sound like a nightmare to me.

 

Now multiply that by about 100 rooms, and 2 sailings within two weeks, label each bag with room number, reservation number. and customer name--in case someone else calls for another person's stuff. Create the storage space, catalogue the items so someone can't say they left more things than were retrieved, create a staff with knowledge of this retreival and return process...

... And now you've added about $200 to the cose of each cruise... YECH!

[DaNana]

I pack & send packages to the Military. It isn't as easy as putting it in a box. This would be a nightmare and the number of staff to pull off the lost & found would be prohibitive. I have left all my hanging clothes in a hotel closet after a funeral. Returned but costly lesson. I would not even want to imagine how many rooms leave things behind. And to try getting them all back to their owners (some who would not want to pay to get back that stinky pair of sneekers or dirty personal items!).:eek: Costly lessons and sad sometimes. I have heard of people getting their things by going back to the dock & someone went to get their things. :D

[foureyedbuzzard]

Junk and items of no value may get tossed. But would you throw away unworn clothing with the tags still attached? How about an expensive watch, or other piece of jewelry? Does anyone really think the ship's employees do either? It either gets kept, given, or traded to another employee for something else of value, or sold on eBay or elsewhere. But there ain't no way people working for cruise ship wages and tips throw away things of value.

[I'm on holiday]

A logistical nightmare? OK ... mark a plastic bag with a ship/date/cabin number. Charge $25 shipping/handling to ship it if requested. Toss it after two weeks.

 

Doesn't sound like a nightmare to me.

 

Nor to me!

 

I'll bet that even more than "health and safety issues" it has to do with the amount of time available to the stewards to change over the 1000+ cabins that they have. It's just more expeditious to toss everything from the cabins in to the trash.

 

JMHO,

 

Charlie

 

Wonder if you'd feel the same if it was your $400. worth of stuff? I guess they should toss iPods and cell phones too.

 

Should th

[I'm on holiday]

Junk and items of no value may get tossed. But would you throw away unworn clothing with the tags still attached? How about an expensive watch, or other piece of jewelry? Does anyone really think the ship's employees do either? It either gets kept, given, or traded to another employee for something else of value, or sold on eBay or elsewhere. But there ain't no way people working for cruise ship wages and tips throw away things of value.

 

True that!